1. Youth has turned away from me, so how can I win it back
When its journey is towards extinction, that's where it's headed

2. I'm trying to get it to return after its departure
But that's an idea that's evaded me, slipped from my grasp

3. Not every dried river will flow again
Nor every withered branch turn green once more

4. If I've parted with my youth, I wept over its loss
Since the time it nursed me, its goodness nurtured me

5. What youth doesn't fade, its pleasures ephemeral
What life's finery doesn't wear out or tear?

6. So it's no wonder that sorrow has made my hair turn white
For I live in an age that makes the young grow old

7. It destroys what it builds of our bodies over time
And diminishes the breath it helps provide

8. I see all things impermanent, nothing remains
So what can a man gain from loving what won't help him?

9. Yet a soul may sometimes yearn ardently
And a heart maybe used to celebrating a feast

10. Oh what regrets after each stifled sob
When sorrow rages in the heart, almost destroying it

11. I yearn for the valley of al-Naqa and it pleases me
From afar to hear the twittering of its wild ducks

12. I'm true in my love for it, though I know full well
That the valley of al-Naqa hasn't come near me

13. The wellsprings of passion flow with my tears
Its fires blaze in the depths of my heart

14. Its thickets are too stingy to offer greetings
While its lions are generous hosts to visitors

15. In it valor and beauty are equal
Calamities and glory go hand in hand

16. Within it swords and armor meet
And spears and steeds charge straight ahead

17. So many casualties beyond healing their wounds
So many prisoners with unbreakable shackles

18. If in the encampment I speak its name fondly
Jealous rivals attack and haters fume

19. Smitten are its veils and tents
Its earrings and necklaces drunk with infatuation

20. In it beauty is adorned, flourishing to its feet
Its bracelets encircling, round as the full moon

21. To musk is its scent, to ambergris its aura
To the rose its cheeks, to the gazelle its neck

22. So beware lest passion makes you reckless
For loss of reason is love's pact and its creed

23. Nor am I one to fear death should it approach
If the eyes of maidens aren't there as witnesses

24. I may wilt but still a figure remains erect
Whose cloak exudes fragrance from emerald dye

25. If a purpose rouses me towards a goal
I head out in a convoy that I'm leading

26. To a battlefield where the whinnying of horses
Terrifies the cowards and makes the valiant proud

27. High above the carnage my eagle swoops down
Devouring corpses while its master looks on

28. My swords rain down upon the skulls of warriors
And my banners flutter between the two hosts

29. When spears clash and retreat disheartened
From a victory whose pillars shine bright as beacons

30. I plunged in with my spear thirsty for more
As death kept its promise and fulfilled its threats

31. I was but the rain whose lightning flashed
I was but the thunder whose rumbling roared

32. I'm the man of action who lives up to his word
When the people's pact has its knots unbound

33. I'm accustomed to speaking truthfully so even if
I pretended otherwise I'd be no good at it

34. I laugh in faces though bitterness may shroud them
Knowing their hearts conceal simmering grudges

35. Whoever doesn't get along with people becomes estranged
Shunned by their tribe and its chief rejects them

36. So whose stinginess can I rely on or call close
When hardly a glimmer of hope remains?

37. I seek affection though not of the treacherous kind
And less than what I hope for is not what I want

38. Long ago I heard tales exalting loyalty
If only I knew in life where now its spirit dwells

39. If I have no friend then I'm still my own
My vows to myself won't be broken or betrayed

40. It's enough that one's reason is the best companion
To aid in every peril that arises

41. If one finds no ally in their own nature
Then resolve to disappoint hopes pinned on you

42. Though I'm alone I'm a clan that will endure
No outcast abandoned, each one protected

43. I have such eloquent poetry that if recited
To a mountain, its rocks would melt away

44. When it intensifies warfare's hottest flames
Or softens to sighs bound in meters

45. It slices through the breeze when it flows
And outstrips the cadence of chanting voices

46. If sung by a vocalist in a musical mode
Its refrain suffices, no more melodies needed

47. Through it my name will last eternally
For a man's legacy after death is his immortality